


One Breath Away

by Mssilverwoods



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:27:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25309720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mssilverwoods/pseuds/Mssilverwoods
Summary: Mulder is only a breath away, one phone call. They’ve been further apart on cases but this feels like she’s letting him go.Not too angsty, mostly fluff. Much thanks in advance for kudos and comments.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Comments: 4
Kudos: 82





	1. Chapter 1

She’s been restless for a while. He’s watched her from the sidelines. In the office as she listens without her usual full attention. Across the desk she frowns and misses him asking if she’d like a coffee. When he teases about the flirty barrister and there’s no response, he worries a little more. 

The spark seemed to go out after Scully’s last visit to her mother’s but he can’t recall any reason why. Mrs Scully was cheerful and pleased to see him as he swung past to pick up his partner, smiling knowingly at the ‘you didn’t need to’. Who needed to know it was an hour detour.

He recalls Scully talking to her old friend Ellen on the phone. Bill and Tara had been pleasant. All seemed fine as they drove home but now he thinks about it, she was distracted, deep in thought. She refuses to confide, telling him that it’s not much in the scheme of life and she’ll get over it when he gently asks after her, worried it’s him. Since Diana he’s aware he’s been an asshole and the faith she has in him is fragile. He’s too scared to think it might be boyfriend trouble.

“You gonna tell me what’s going on?’ Mulder says quietly, “I can’t fix it if I don’t know.”

“It’s not you!” She avoids Mulder’s seemingly permanently worried face and stares straight at his chest, landing her eyes on his ugly tie. 

He is an FBI agent with greater things to concern him, not her mess. Goodness knows, she has more to worry about than this too. Nevertheless she has to confess because she knows he’ll hound her until he gets an answer and she feels guilty that he thinks it’s him. “It’s so stupid, I don’t even think I want to tell you,” she hesitates and then ploughs on as he eyes her with steely determination. It seems better to get it over and done with so he can laugh at her. “Ellen invited me to her engagement party tonight.”

“That’s good isn’t it?” Mulder looks confused, but feels relief. It’s not another man.

“The invite is for two,” Scully sighs and he can fill in the gaps. “I was hoping Skinner would call me into that meeting with you then I’d have an excuse not to go.” 

Mulder thinks for a moment. “Can you take Pendrell? Or we can invent a case?”

“I barely know Pendrell. We don’t have an X-Files to have a case. I can’t let Ellen down not after all we’ve been through. I have to go,” Scully grouses. "I have to go, I really should."

“Come here,” Mulder pulls Scully into a hug, relief that it’s not about him floods though him until he realises that actually it is him, for he is the one to has stolen her away for himself, to share this hopeless lonely life. This might be unchartered territory, but he feels a sense of responsibility.

“Go on, you can laugh at me now.” Her face pressing into his chest muffles her voice. “I told you it was silly.”

Mulder tips a finger under her chin. “Why would I laugh? She’s a friend and I know how important you must be to her. You’re important to me too.”

Scully wants to say she’d go with him but the words twist on her tongue and she settles for a sniff instead. She misses the sad look that passes over his face. With a mercurial change of mood to hide his upset, Mulder nudges her towards the door. “Go on, get your best party gear on, you’re off out.”

“I know, I know…” Scully sighs, picking up her bag and car keys.

To her astonishment, he kisses her cheek “Doesn’t matter what anyone thinks about you, they can mind their own business. You’re more than that, you’re a lifesaving FBI agent and my partner. C’mon Scully, you said it yourself, you’ve been through so much. If Ellen is a great as you say she is, she’s not going to judge.”

She nods, slightly dazed. “Suppose so…”

He sees the doubtful look on her face and tries to inject his plan with enthusiasm. “Look, find the best dress in your wardrobe and stay for a little while. I’ll take you out for breakfast tomorrow, you can tell me I was right all along.” 

He hesitates to ask if she trusts him but she smiles, agrees and heads into the night before she’s tempted to ask him any daft questions or make any more insane confessions.

xxxx

Scully stands, a little wobbly legged from nerves, outside the door of a huge, elegant hall. From inside she can hear the clink of glasses and the rich laughter of happy partygoers. It’s very odd she thinks, how life moves on. Who could have predicted that Ellen, her rebellious best friend from her school days would bag a doctor and the house with the picket fence? Mind you, Scully ponders, nobody would ever thought she would have left Ethan to travel across the country with Mulder on an impossible, but mind-blowing quest.

Ah, Mulder and that whole mysterious side to her life that she can’t explain to anyone. Oh, it’s not because she doesn’t want to, more than anything she wants to parade him past her friends and snog him senseless in the middle of the party where everyone can see. If only he knew and she had the courage to ask. 

Now she stands alone, just where she didn’t want to be and she feels slightly lost without him. Her back is cold without his hand right there and she wants to turn to him, listen to him make a bad joke to reassure her that there was something normal in her world. Of course, he’s with Skinner, and it feels like the FBI is set on taking him further away from her. Her moment now gone.

Mulder is only a breath away, one phone call. They’ve been further apart on cases but this feels like she’s letting him go. Scully puts it down to the moment and the morbid feeling that her chosen life will never be conventional. Once upon a time, with Ethan she had a party, showing her ring to wine soaked friends, assuming the status of fiancee would kill the trepidation she felt in her belly about marriage. Then she met Mulder and didn’t feel the same about Ethan ever again. 

Scully takes a deep breath. Her mood won’t be fixed standing outside, so she makes a quiet entrance, hanging up her coat, preparing herself for the necessary air kisses and ready to spot a seat in the corner for one. She remembers Mulder’s words, ‘stay for a little while’. With any luck, nobody will notice when she leaves. 

Ellen is giddy with excitement, hearty hellos and big hugs, she looks animated and glowing, absolutely happy to be the centre of attention. Unlike her best friend, Scully was happy to hide in her shadow and let her take the limelight. It was why Ellen got arrested for drunkenly flashing more than she intended after a night out with the girls. The first time Scully had to flash her shiny new FBI badge was to release her friend from an overnight stay in a cell.

After squealing across the floor to welcome her friend, Ellen quietly asks “Did you bring anyone?” 

She means Mulder of course. The hours she's spent talking about her partner to Ellen are memorable for her digressions into lust and longing, and finally tears. Mostly tears since Diana.

Scully smiles graciously and then decides to make light of the comment, “I might have a queue of men waiting to ravish me!”

“I hope not,” a voice murmurs from behind her. Lips, oh so softly, kiss her neck and then a second on the corner of her mouth. “I thought I fought them all off to get you to myself.”


	2. Chapter 2

Ellen is staring, her mouth opening but rendered speechless. If her friend is shocked, then Scully finds herself swept away. The voice is unmistakable. She’s battling the urge to ask him what the hell he’s playing at, and thank him. The nerves in her stomach seem to have swarmed into a frenzy of ill-advised longing.

“Hello Ellen, I’m Fox Mulder, Dana’s partner.” Mulder kisses the back of her friend’s hand, politely admires the engagement ring and wishes her well.

Scully finds that she and Ellen are both looking at Mulder as if he’s appear from outer space. Ellen comes to first, with a big smile and beckons her fiancée over, “Greg, come over here, meet Fox Mulder, y’’know Dana’s man.” At this Scully blushes and daringly looks at Mulder’s face which is perfectly calm. How does he do that?

Scully has met Greg before. He’s even offered her tipsy advice over wine and she’s so thrilled they’re engaged. It’s why she had to be here. She’s thought him perfect for Ellen and handsome. He is, but his frame looks awkward beside the taller, lithe agent and he is charmingly shy at his own party. Most friends appear to be Ellen’s, and Scully glad when Mulder and Greg start to laugh about being tagalongs to ‘their women’. She shivers at the idea she’s his possession. It goes against all her principles, but she likes it nevertheless. It’s a phrase Ethan once used and it made her rebel, with Mulder she wants to hang on tightly. 

A swarm of people have come to investigate them. He mutters that it’s ironic and she agrees. She knows that she wouldn’t have had this much wanted attention had they attended alone.

To his credit, Mulder’s arm never leaves Scully’s waist, resting with possessive slight as his lips kiss her cheek or her bare shoulder enough times for Ellen to tell them to get a room. The remark causes her to shiver and his look seems to tell her he’d make good on her thoughts and fulfil all her fantasies. It’s all she can do not to drown in that look of intent.

The band starts to play in the room next door, breaking the moment. Ellen pulls Greg away for a dance to the upbeat song and Scully gets Mulder to herself. She doesn’t know where to start or what to say.

He takes her hand and spins her gently round, the fabric of her dress rustles against his suit as the skirt lifts and she notices the dark grey matches his tie. “You’re beautiful.”

She’s still uncertain and it must be visible on her face, for he clears his throat and shuffles his feet, “You left the invite on your desk. My meeting finished early and, hmmm….hello?” 

“Hello yourself.” Scully quips, unable for a moment, to breath, he went to all this effort. She pretends to straight his tie instead. “Were’d you land from, Planet Dishy?”

He laughs at this, and she is so relieved to see him smile just as he says how good it is to hear her laugh. She’s certain he felt obligated, maybe he does but it’s a rescue to match Antartica, delivered with the same care.

“Thank you for this.” Scully bits her lip, her nerves still getting the better of her for this feels like a date. “You’ve just taken me by surprise, I thought you’d be there all evening.”

“I think Skinner had a date! Don’t laugh, he was pushing me out of the door, I barely sat down.”

The song changes and she’s suddenly reminded of the party around them. “I haven’t seen Ethan thankfully…”

Mulder scratched his ear and has the temerity to look a little guilty as Scully eyes him, “I heard he had a little trouble with the alarm system on his swanky new apartment..”

“Lone Gunmen?”

“And those fancy security gates.” Mulder grins “We’ve a little while to get settled, before I claim you as my own.”

Before Scully can respond to this blatant flirt, she is rendered helpless as Ellen makes a claim on Mulder. As Scully makes small talk with her bewildered fiancée, all she could do was watch as her friend flung herself at her partner like an overexcited octopus on the dance floor. Once again she felt a familiar feeling of fear in her stomach, the legacy of Diana has knocked her confidence and made her uncertain of her place. Ellen is having fun as befits the star of the party but it still stings a little.

She watches as Mulder calmly remove Ellen’s wandering hands from his waist with a gentle smile and delivers her back to the safety of Greg’s grateful arms, returning himself to Scully as the band launched into a familiar, slow strain of Elvis, “It’s our song!”

“Your song, Mulder!”

He grins and sweeps her elegantly into his arms, “I’m not sure I like playing your make-believe boyfriend. All I seem to attract is overexcited, drunk best friends when I’d rather have you.”


	3. Chapter 3

Scully looks at him with astonishment and he saves himself the embarrassment of hearing her rejection by turning her under his arm. 

“She's probably got a crush on you.” Scully teases. He wasn’t expecting those to be her next words. 

He fakes a pained wince that makes her laugh and then spins her around the floor, almost certain that the entire room can hear his heart pounding. He wonders if she knows how much effort he has put into this evening? If she realises that his bedroom is littered with numerous combinations of suits and with them, his dreams of wishing to make her happy.

It was a crazy idea, the most maddening plan he had ever come up with as he searched the FBI records and found the address of Ethan, the rebel had an unpaid parking ticket from two years ago. When Langley called about beers next week he happened to pass on the address. When his friend said the alarm system was an easy hack, well it seemed rude to not too agree…. Hopefully worthwhile he thought, if only to prove to Scully that he was more than a mad agent with a love of the bizarre and one specific woman.

Her.

It wasn’t as if he had even thought the entire concept through. He genuinely planned for Scully to go alone and he’d be waiting by her front door tomorrow morning, ready to listen to her gossip over breakfast and empathise with their appalling social life. But as she left him, slightly lost and utterly unlike his confident happy Scully, Mulder knew that he had to be there because she would likely the same for him. Damm the consequences.

Mulder pauses in the dance and finds every atom of courage in his being to speak. “Have you got a crush on me?”

To his utter dismay, Scully shakes her head. “I’ve seen you grumpy after a bad night on crap whiskey. I’ve heard you sing drunkenly all night and my ears still haven’t recovered. I know that you leave dirty socks under your sofa and you have a Barry Manilow CD in your car.”

“Scully, I mean, Mandy is great song…” he protests and finds her finger on his lips, he kisses it in the hope it’ll persuade her to think better of him.

She looks at him with a determination that reminds him of all that’s good about them together and speaks firmly, “I don’t have a crush on you.”

Oh. That wasn’t where he thought this conversion was heading, “I walked into that one, didnt’ I?” It’s all he can think of to say until he is robbed of the power of speech by her lips on his. 

“I love you, Spooky.” 

He wasn't expecting those words either. He's punch drunk on happy when he tells her how long he's loved her for.

***

They’ve investigated the buffet, picked at the quiche and drunk warm wine. They agreed to get take-out later.

Danced a little more and snogged to Careless Whisper as everyone ought to do once in a lifetime. She pulled him into a chair, trapping him by sitting on his lap when she thought he might serenade her to Elvis. She listens to him humming Love Me Tender in her ear instead.

In the bathroom, Scully patched up Ellen’s make-up as her friend quietly apologised for getting handsy with her ‘hot man’ and how in love they look. 

Her feet ache and she’s desperate to take off the dress, a confession that leaves him slack jawed. His tie is in her purse, along with his house and car keys. Her feet land in his lap as he massages her ankles, watching her lips as she relaxes and digresses, talking animatedly about nothing much, she’s simply hoping they never leave, and this bubble doesn’t burst when the DJ hits the lights, and they realise the dance floor is sticky and littered with her dreams and party stringers.

She rises to her feet, puts on her shoes and takes his hand. One more dance, who knows when they’ll do this again. As song comes to a close and Scully looks at him, his glance is loaded and full of intent. She’s never seen that look before. Never at Phoebe, Detective White or Diana, at least not when she's been around.

“Let’s go home.” He takes her hand, “I’ve got to make good on a promise.”


	4. Chapter 4

“Which was?” An arched eyebrow puts them back on familiar ground.

“To claim you as my own.” He shakes the mood up with a grin, and she wants to capture their laughter in a jar and open it when she finds herself lonely. 

They have to say their goodbyes first. Mulder insists despite Scully’s impatience to leave, it’ll make them more memorable. He finds himself regretting this, her hand wrapped in his and that look in her eyes that seems to be hot-wired to his libido.

As they walk around, he feels her fingers grip his a little harder, “Ethan.” 

“You want to say hello?” Mulder shares a curious look with the paunchy, sandy haired man across the room, and squeezes Scully’s hand. They’ve got this. He pulls a face at her, “I can beat my chest with my fists, woman.” 

“Oh no!” Scully shakes her head and rewards him with a cheeky grin, “I think we’ll let everyone else tell him all about you and me.”

Mulder hates being the subject of gossip, but this is one rumour he’s delighted to fulfil. Dropping a kiss to her lips, he murmurs his approval.

Finally they are excused and outside in the cool night air. Mulder can’t quell the thought that Scully may seen reason now the heat of the party is past. It was fun inside. He didn’t feel like he was playing a part, it felt very real. As if she’s sensing his doubt, she keeps hold of his hand as they walk through the grounds towards his car. She hasn’t offered to get a cab, that’s a start.

“Your place?” It’s more of a statement than a question to which he nods. The journey is quiet. They quietly laugh over Ethan - she wonders what she ever saw in him and he blushes over Ellen’s behaviour. She laughs, there’s no offence, thank goodness, thanks to him.

The air in his apartment is heavy. He throws open the window by the couch, distracts himself with feeding the fish, straightens the blanket, moving the pile of cushions he uses as a makeshift pillow. 

Finally he turns to face her and finds her leaning against the door, looking amused. As he passes, offering a drink she catches his arm and pulls him close. Despite his feet, firmly planted on the ground, Mulder feels the earth shaking and taking him away from behaviours that neither he or Scully would usually consider normal for them. To his delight, and clearly hers, if her smile is proof, they’ve become a regular couple at a party. A regular real life couple perhaps.

Mulder kisses her forehead, a moment to clear the jumble of love muddled with lust and anchors himself there. Below him, her eyes close as his breath moves her hair and after a while he moves away and drinks her in. This cannot be repeated, and he wants to treasure it for a moment longer. 

Scully takes the opportunity to gaze at him and then at his hands, one braced next to her head, the other rested on her hip. Lean, strong and yet tender, sometimes tight with anger. Just like him. He’s brushed a hand on her back since they first met, she’s felt them around her many times. When they’ve lost loves ones, ran from danger and in the hospital when he was the first person to hear she was in remission, he kissed her fingers. 

“We can stop right now…if you want?”

His words interrupt her study and she’s almost angry with him for giving her the option to run away. She takes a firm hold on her thoughts, and her breath catches in her throat as his eyes flash a dark thunder and flutter shut, welcoming her rain of kisses. His face fills her vision and she drinks in every detail; his hair ever so slightly tussled from her fingers, his aquiline nose and the strong cheekbones that make a striking man who is, she hopes, all hers.

“Dana Scully.” There is desire in her name. Where on earth did that tone of voice come from? She's never heard her name said in such a way that it’s stroked into obsenity.


	5. Chapter 5

Seeking her hips, his hands tries to hold her still so he can move them from the door. For one so strong, Mulder is ineffective at stopping her game. Scully knows her murmurs of how she needs him now are melting his resistance. Her hips grind into his hands provocatively and he surrenders.

She sees this man she loves. His gentle hands encourage her face to his for another kiss as she works her dress up over her thighs, her fingers creeping up his body too, her restless curves will not hold still. Finally she lunges for his belt, unzipping him in seconds. She thinks she should pause and check but he leads her onward, no thought of the moment they cannot go back from. It’s been an affair of the mind for years, the physical is a simple act of completeness.

He is taut, throbbing and large. He stands before her as vulnerable as she’s ever seen him suddenly still as a statue, he can read her mind. This moment is about her, taking that step and being brave for them both. She knows he would have made a move so much sooner had it not been her fears. Her words, her dishevelled state and their declarations of love release the shackles.

He is more than happy to let her explore for a brief moment until the motion and the sight of her body with the dress pushed up around her waist revealing a glimpse of her barely there knickers threatens to overpower him. He leans into the skin at the hollow of her shoulder and her neck, trying to absorb her through his lips, exchanging touch for taste. He lifts her up, her legs locking around his waist. In the desperation he is certain that there was something he must be doing…oh the damm bed……his hand slides between them, pushing the lace aside. He feels the evidence of her desire, the results of their actions and he is drowning.

“Please.”

He loses that last grip of control, the sound of her voice is the final break. A primitive moan escapes him as he surges forward, his hunger now unrestrained. He has to feel her everywhere that matters. His hips thrust against her with no rhythm, in and out, again and again as she responds to his pace. He feels her shudder and arch her body. Her head falls forward, her mouth biting into his shoulder as she holds back a scream only barely aware that they’re still outside. He follows her, so fast and so hard it’s almost painful in it’s sweetness.

Mulder feels her smile into his neck as her heart starts to slow, her breath catching. His legs are shaking with the effort of their position and the past moments. He holds her tight and they stumble from the door with him still inside her. To his surprise he feels her tighten around her and he gazes at her in surprise.

“That’s impossible,” Scully gasps feeling him harden inside her as he manages to successful negotiate the door to his bedroom. He grins and agrees as he sees her down on the bed.

“I told you I was claiming you, I didn’t say how many times,” Mulder pauses and gazes at her with intense desire and clarity. “You do know that I love you too, don’t you?”

Scully finds herself frozen by his heated look and wonders if he finds himself wanting anything from her. Her beautiful dress is still around her waist, her thighs wet and sticky and her hair dropping from it’s organised ‘do’. She imagines she must look like a lusty tart.

“You’re beautiful, but I want to see you naked.”His voice is a command as she stands up, shaking on her legs and turns to let him unzip her dress. Her bra follows and the shreds of her knickers barely need touching to release them. He makes to take her in his arms but she stops him. “Now you.”

She lies back and luxuriates at the view of his methodical strip. The tie is the first to go, his gun - the one at his waist, and the one at his ankle are placed carefully on the lone side table until his patience runs out and he kicks and pulls at the rest of his clothing.

Scully isn’t sure what to feast her eyes on first; his beautiful eyes, that kissable mouth, his soft hands. She wants all of him. He is a work of art from his lean, taut chest, his stomach is dappled with light that picks up the network of muscles and she eyes his long shapely legs. She shuts her eyes and breaths deeply much to his concern and she feels him drop onto the bed, kneeling between her legs.

She smiles up at his worried face, her eyes talking to him when words fail and she knew that he has understood she is okay but needed a moment. They both do.

Then gently she traces a path with her fingertips down his face, over his chest and around him, holding him in her hand.

He gently removes her hand, takes both of hers in his and stretches them over her head. Below him she writhes around, pretending to be frustrated at being trapped, for his pleasure. She knows her excitement is the only aphrodisiac that he needs.

He holds her hips down with his one free hand and lazily runs his hands through the sticky trail her on thigh and licks his fingers with a murmur of appreciation. His distraction is her reward as he lets his grip on her hands soften. Immediately she sits up and drags his mouth down to her for a kiss, eager to share the taste. Growing in confidence her tongue replicates his actions of earlier and it is her turn to invade his mouth. In and out, slow and then fast, with more passion.

Gasping for air she lies back on the bed, and he falls with her. His hands waste no time in exploring her and where his fingers fall his tongue follows. He tests the weight of her breasts and finds she is a handful. There’s more of her to play with and he wastes no time with his new toys. His tongue teases her as his ears listen to her racing heart.

“This is the kind of party I like,” His voice is muffled and vibrates against her rib cage, “You have the best dessert.”

She can’t help the belly laugh that has her wiping tears from her eyes, it’s infectious, this emotion. There’s a smile dancing on his face as he stares at her in wonder. 

His knees nudge her legs apart and she arches closer to him. He drives in, feeling her surround him and pull him deeper, welcoming him home. Then, on one long stroke, he pulls out and before she can complain he flips her over and pulls her onto her knees and slams back into her. Bracing himself with one hand he plays her and hears the music of her cries as she comes and he sings with her.

She falls away from him and tugs him into a wordless hug., his head on her stomach, his breath hot and fluttering over her body, his arms wrap around her thighs and he clutches her close. Scully strokes his hair ruffling it through her fingers, stroking away any doubts.

“Thank you for being my guest.” 

His chuckle makes her laugh, “I’m glad I came.”

***

Thanks for reading :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG I did it. Smut. Blimey!

**Author's Note:**

> Probably a few chapters - 4 maybe.


End file.
